Gregory built about 10 front-wheel-drive automobiles between 1918 and 1922. His interest in front-wheel drive paralleled that of Frenchman J.A. Gregoire, who invented the Tracta constant-velocity joint for the Citroen Traction Avant. About that time, Ben Gregory barnstormed local tracks and raced a car powered by a Hispano-Suiza airplane engine. These cars, according to a June 1956 article in Road & Track magazine, preceded the famous front-drive Miller racers by about a year. In 1921 he exhibited a touring car at the Kansas City Auto Show.
The Gregory sports car has a tube frame and a hand-formed body. The four-cylinder, air-cooled Porsche engine is mounted at the very front of the car, with the transaxle toward the center of the vehicle. The Road & Track article said the 1,925-pound car could hit 95 or 100 mph with the 70 horsepower engine. Gregory’s sports car featured center-point, vertical-pivot steering with large wheel bearings that housed Rzeppa constant-velocity joints, according to the magazine’s article. Gregory hoped to build 20 cars, which would have sold for $5,000.
In the 1950s, Gregory also developed the prototype M422 Mighty Mite, a tiny four-wheel-drive vehicle for the Marines. American Motors built 5,000 based on his prototype vehicle.
